Phase two for Developing your seat

  Here we are for phase two on developing your seat. So i hope everyone has spent time doing this exercise and can really feel the difference between a heavy seat and a light independent seat. I am sure you are asking yourself "How am i suppose to do this and really ride"?  Well when your seat is truly independent (meaning not using the reins nor the stirrups for balance) . Trust me you will be able to do this with lots of practice and patience.  It does take time time to be able to get strong enough but well worth it.  Remember we are expecting our horses to be strong and balanced which only happens with long and hard work.  I have a saying "Our horses are only as strong as their riders". So you can do this for you horse.
One of the most important pieces to an independent seat is that you have a straight pelvis and a strong core. These two things go hand in hand.
You can't have one with out the other.
Your core is so important to a independent seat and if your pelvis is not straight YOU CAN NOT ACCESS YOUR CORE!!!!!!  
So your probably thinking how do you know if you have a straight pelvis  and if not how do i get one? Look at the first picture below.  This is how a straight pelvis should look like.
You will have to spend time doing this exercise and then be able to do this all day long without thinking about it.  Realistically this is how your pelvis should be ALWAYS.
Good luck it is really eye opener once you realize how hard it is to keep, but i believe you can do it.
This won't only help you in your riding but also in the rest of your life. This is a big part of having great posture.
When you are ready to put your feet back into the stirrups you will start putting only one in at a time. You will start with putting your inside foot in the stirrup first and your outside leg will remain behind the back of the saddle.
The reason for this is because we need to strengthen our outside leg which is a big part of our outside aids.
When you look at the second and third picture, this is a picture of how you will put your outside leg back behind the back of the saddle and ride.
I will cover more on why this is so important later on. 
Spend time either on the lunge line or in a round pen while working on your balance and gaining an independent seat. This way you don't have to think about steering at the same time.
Be patience, I promise you it is very hard but well worth it.
You will see in the pictures below on how much of a difference keeping your outside leg up does.
Best of luck to you all on your journey. If you stick with all that i am teaching you i promise you will definitely notice a difference not only your riding but also in your horse.